• A new LGBTQ+ forum is now being trialed and there have been changes made to the Support and Advice forum. To read more about these updates, click here.
  • Hey Trainers! Be sure to check out Corsola Beach, our newest section on the forums, in partnership with our friends at Corsola Cove! At the Beach, you can discuss the competitive side of the games, post your favorite Pokemon memes, and connect with other Pokemon creators!
  • Due to the recent changes with Twitter's API, it is no longer possible for Bulbagarden forum users to login via their Twitter account. If you signed up to Bulbagarden via Twitter and do not have another way to login, please contact us here with your Twitter username so that we can get you sorted.

Spoilers What do you NOT like about USUM?

That reminds me, does anyone remember that brief encounter with Looker outside Konikoni City? Does he do anything after that encounter? Because that's the only time I saw him in USUM
I know that he and Anabel make a quick cameo on your way to the Battle Tree, in the post-game.
 
I know that he and Anabel make a quick cameo on your way to the Battle Tree, in the post-game.
So basically there is no point in adding him to USUM...
That's disappointing. Looker should've had a bigger role investigating Team Skull or Ultra Wormholes or something like that. Especially because the one in SM is a "faller", and that this Looker may be different than that Looker. Some new twists would've been nice
 
Disclaimer: Rant ahead.

I arrived on Ula'Ula today. There was a lot that happened as well as to do, but the one thing I was most excited about was visiting the Pokemon Gym. I won't get into the why since it's already been said many times why people were looking forward to this feature. So let's jump straight to the disappointment.

  • This was not a Gym.
  • Okay, facetiousness aside, what kind of a Gym makes you pay to enter? For six generations, even in spinoffs, we have never had to pay to challenge a Gym. Sure, you make that money back and more after entering this establishment, but it's still something I have an issue with and found unnecessary. There have been plenty of facilities or hobbies in the Pokemon series that would arguably require money or payment of some kind (like I don't know, universal healthcare from a Pokemon Center), so I don't understand why they'd start now with a relatively charge-free concept.
  • Next, this Gym had no theme. No specific type or kind of Pokemon used. Hell, it wasn't even chock full of only Kantonian Pokemon. Because of that, it really didn't feel like I was enjoying a foreign region facility. Rather, I was in a room with trashcans, battling Beautys using Alolan Pokemon from Melemele and Akala. They should have had a specific type if they're going to go so far as give an actual badge for defeating the "Gym Leader." Since the Gym was modeled after Surge's, they easily could have made it into an Electric Gym (a precursor for the Electric Trial) armed with a Raichu and everything! Missed potential!
  • This point kind of ties in with the prior. Clearly, Malie City has strong Japanese influences-most if not all buildings resemble Japanese castles or shiros. Thus, I think the Gym would have been more fitting if it reflected the (currently) most obvious Japanese settlement in the Pokemon franchise-the Johto region. The two Gyms that come to mind, since their respective cities use the same kind of architecture, are Violet and Ecruteak City. Imagine if we would have had a modern, Generation 7 remake of either Japanese styled Gym-that would have made so much sense! Hell, they even could have had guest appearances from Falkner or Morty, since everyone else from previous generations happen to be in Alola. I just think it would have been more thematic. Doubly so if they used non-Alolan dex Pokemon too-that really would have added to the concept of a foreign facility and practice.
  • The actual Gym itself doesn't do Surge's OG Gym any justice. Where were the electric traps? The references of war? The two switches that takes an average player, like myself, several minutes to press correctly? Any Electric type Pokemon used? Why was the "Gym Leader," a Martial Artist who uses a lone Machoke?
  • I can't even call this the standard fare of Kanto pandering because they didn't even do that correctly. I don't get the purpose of this feature, because it doesn't resemble any of the Gyms I've spent the past 18 years conquering. Game Freak, why do you persist with the half-assing? Honestly, this is something I would have expected to see in the original Sun & Moon, only to be improved in Ultra Sun & Ultra Moon. I haven't beaten the game yet, so I'm not aware if more features are added post-game. But as it stands, Malie's "Gym" is just lacking.
  • Since when was Kanto the supposed best region for Gym Battles?
 
I hate, I hate, I hate, I hate...
I F-ING HATE HOW THERE CAN BE PORTAL DURING CURVES ON ULTRA WARP RIDE!
I ALREADY HAVE BAD SENSE OF DIMENSIONAL SPACE, MUST YOU MAKE IT THAT MUCH COMPLICATED?
If they filled the curves to the brim of those electrical shockies, I wouldn't mind. But f-ing hell, every god damn time, I try to avoid it, but guess what? It's on a curve, and my try to avoid actually puts me perfectly on place to enter the portal. And guess f-ing what, it's a f-ing Stunfisk.
This situation happened not once, nor twice. It has happened at least 5 times.
Anyway, outside of that, don't have much to complain about the game.
Just came here to yell about PORTAL ON CURVES FFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFF
 
I hate, I hate, I hate, I hate...
I F-ING HATE HOW THERE CAN BE PORTAL DURING CURVES ON ULTRA WARP RIDE!
I ALREADY HAVE BAD SENSE OF DIMENSIONAL SPACE, MUST YOU MAKE IT THAT MUCH COMPLICATED?
If they filled the curves to the brim of those electrical shockies, I wouldn't mind. But f-ing hell, every god damn time, I try to avoid it, but guess what? It's on a curve, and my try to avoid actually puts me perfectly on place to enter the portal. And guess f-ing what, it's a f-ing Stunfisk.
This situation happened not once, nor twice. It has happened at least 5 times.
Anyway, outside of that, don't have much to complain about the game.
Just came here to yell about PORTAL ON CURVES FFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFF

The entire ultra wormhole minigame is pretty garbage if you ask me.
 
The entire ultra wormhole minigame is pretty garbage if you ask me.
I really love avoid mini-games like that. Mix that up with chance of finding all legendaries, a bunch of Pokémon, a bunch of shinies even, the feeling of running hundred of KM/h on a cool legendary and a kick ass song that I can listen for hours, then you have right there the formula to make me happy.
The one thing I really hate is that the portals on the curves reaaaaallly can mess you up. And I really don't like how finding a legendary white portal isn't a guaranteed Guzzlord, 'cause I ain't having luck with that dood.
Outside of that, I love that minigame.
 
I hated what they did with the Ultra Megalopolis. It really does end up being just a hallway/corridor and an elevator. Not even explorable during postgame. What happened? What was even the point of advertising this thing?
Also, I hate mantines.
 
I agree so much with the Kantonian Gym and Ultra Megalopolis.

The Kantonian Gym feels like a last minute addition. The Vermilion Gym is such a strange choice and the whole thing just doesn't feel like a Gym in the slightest.

And Ultra Megalopolis, man talk about a disappointment. I know I probably set myself up for disappointment but what do you want when it was marketed like it was. The whole aesthetic looked so cool and I was expecting a Lumiose City sized area to explore. But instead... it's an area that is smaller than most small towns in the game. There's street signs and even a town map but somehow these stupid barricades don't go away after the danger is gone.
 
I really love avoid mini-games like that. Mix that up with chance of finding all legendaries, a bunch of Pokémon, a bunch of shinies even, the feeling of running hundred of KM/h on a cool legendary and a kick ass song that I can listen for hours, then you have right there the formula to make me happy.
The one thing I really hate is that the portals on the curves reaaaaallly can mess you up. And I really don't like how finding a legendary white portal isn't a guaranteed Guzzlord, 'cause I ain't having luck with that dood.
Outside of that, I love that minigame.

Oh, don't get me wrong. Its function is really cool. I like the concept and I like traveling to other worlds to catch legends and such. But it controls so horribly.

Though I loved the Mantine Surf game, so that's a plus.
 
Disclaimer: Rant ahead.

I arrived on Ula'Ula today. There was a lot that happened as well as to do, but the one thing I was most excited about was visiting the Pokemon Gym. I won't get into the why since it's already been said many times why people were looking forward to this feature. So let's jump straight to the disappointment.

  • This was not a Gym.
  • Okay, facetiousness aside, what kind of a Gym makes you pay to enter? For six generations, even in spinoffs, we have never had to pay to challenge a Gym. Sure, you make that money back and more after entering this establishment, but it's still something I have an issue with and found unnecessary. There have been plenty of facilities or hobbies in the Pokemon series that would arguably require money or payment of some kind (like I don't know, universal healthcare from a Pokemon Center), so I don't understand why they'd start now with a relatively charge-free concept.
  • Next, this Gym had no theme. No specific type or kind of Pokemon used. Hell, it wasn't even chock full of only Kantonian Pokemon. Because of that, it really didn't feel like I was enjoying a foreign region facility. Rather, I was in a room with trashcans, battling Beautys using Alolan Pokemon from Melemele and Akala. They should have had a specific type if they're going to go so far as give an actual badge for defeating the "Gym Leader." Since the Gym was modeled after Surge's, they easily could have made it into an Electric Gym (a precursor for the Electric Trial) armed with a Raichu and everything! Missed potential!
  • This point kind of ties in with the prior. Clearly, Malie City has strong Japanese influences-most if not all buildings resemble Japanese castles or shiros. Thus, I think the Gym would have been more fitting if it reflected the (currently) most obvious Japanese settlement in the Pokemon franchise-the Johto region. The two Gyms that come to mind, since their respective cities use the same kind of architecture, are Violet and Ecruteak City. Imagine if we would have had a modern, Generation 7 remake of either Japanese styled Gym-that would have made so much sense! Hell, they even could have had guest appearances from Falkner or Morty, since everyone else from previous generations happen to be in Alola. I just think it would have been more thematic. Doubly so if they used non-Alolan dex Pokemon too-that really would have added to the concept of a foreign facility and practice.
  • The actual Gym itself doesn't do Surge's OG Gym any justice. Where were the electric traps? The references of war? The two switches that takes an average player, like myself, several minutes to press correctly? Any Electric type Pokemon used? Why was the "Gym Leader," a Martial Artist who uses a lone Machoke?
  • I can't even call this the standard fare of Kanto pandering because they didn't even do that correctly. I don't get the purpose of this feature, because it doesn't resemble any of the Gyms I've spent the past 18 years conquering. Game Freak, why do you persist with the half-assing? Honestly, this is something I would have expected to see in the original Sun & Moon, only to be improved in Ultra Sun & Ultra Moon. I haven't beaten the game yet, so I'm not aware if more features are added post-game. But as it stands, Malie's "Gym" is just lacking.
  • Since when was Kanto the supposed best region for Gym Battles?

I hated what they did with the Ultra Megalopolis. It really does end up being just a hallway/corridor and an elevator. Not even explorable during postgame. What happened? What was even the point of advertising this thing?
Also, I hate mantines.

I agree so much with the Kantonian Gym and Ultra Megalopolis.

The Kantonian Gym feels like a last minute addition. The Vermilion Gym is such a strange choice and the whole thing just doesn't feel like a Gym in the slightest.

And Ultra Megalopolis, man talk about a disappointment. I know I probably set myself up for disappointment but what do you want when it was marketed like it was. The whole aesthetic looked so cool and I was expecting a Lumiose City sized area to explore. But instead... it's an area that is smaller than most small towns in the game. There's street signs and even a town map but somehow these stupid barricades don't go away after the danger is gone.

I just did the Kantonian "Gym", and I felt like I was playing a knock-off Chinese bootleg Pokemon game. Holy Miltank that was just terrible.

Making the Pokedex sentient was a mistake.

To y'all above, my condolences for having to experience this disappointment. We've all been there.

And I agree completely. Come on! The place is named "ULTRA MEGAlopolis" You don't name a city "polis" or "mega" if it's not a big city like Castelia or Lumiose... I'm sure it IS a big city, but they just chose to lazily block everything in it and leave us with a hallway. Just.

The Kantonian gym... yep, agreed completely. It's not a real gym, let alone a real Vermilion replica. Do you know why you have to pay for it? Because they're treating it like an attraction for the locals (nope, not tourists since every other region has gyms). They're not even trying to tell you it's a proper replica...one NPC even says the "trash cans" are just ice buckets with drinks. What they're doing is ripping off clueless locals with a cheap knock-off of a gym. Why is Ryuki even there? It's all so random I don't even... The "gym leader" has a single pokemon and it's a fighting type.. I presume the real reason no1 uses electric types or even purely kanto pokemon is because this building is only there to be a grinding place post-game. That just makes it even worse...why not simply make it a dojo and be done with it? Didn't need to sell it as a gym.

"Listen up, -player-! Here's where I give you advice you didn't ask for!" I can't. This should speak for itself.

And it ain't just Megalopolis or the Gym thing, but most of the USUM marketing has been intentionally deceptive. They advertised certain things/aspects/features so much and made you expect more of them...instead, when reality hit, they were nothing more than the trailers showed(that includes the climax of the plot..literally everything shown in trailers was ALL there was to it..). Kahili too, and the golf course..another disappointment. Lets not even start with the redone Alola map. Plenty of changes turned out to be mere map aesthetics that have no bearing on in-game changes. What a disappointment.
 
The Kantonian gym... yep, agreed completely. It's not a real gym, let alone a real Vermilion replica. Do you know why you have to pay for it? Because they're treating it like an attraction for the locals (nope, not tourists since every other region has gyms). They're not even trying to tell you it's a proper replica...one NPC even says the "trash cans" are just ice buckets with drinks. What they're doing is ripping off clueless locals with a cheap knock-off of a gym. Why is Ryuki even there? It's all so random I don't even... The "gym leader" has a single pokemon and it's a fighting type.. I presume the real reason no1 uses electric types or even purely kanto pokemon is because this building is only there to be a grinding place post-game. That just makes it even worse...why not simply make it a dojo and be done with it? Didn't need to sell it as a gym.

"Listen up, -player-! Here's where I give you advice you didn't ask for!" I can't. This should speak for itself.
Actually, while I disliked it at first... cheap knock-off for the locals that doesn't even get it right just made this the most amazing thing to me
 
K, I narrowed down all the reasons why I hate the new Elite Four

  • You're supposed to have a big battle with the Kahunas when you complete your Island Challenge, and the League was recently made so they were incorporatng everything together. Except with this new Elite Four, we only have one Kahuna. One.
  • Now we don't have representation from Melemele Island, and we have two residents from Ula'ula.
  • The gender ratio is horribly imbalanced. I prefer it being 2-male-2-female. And if you play as a female, you have this horribly imbalanced League.
  • I'm glad Molayne is doing more, but why replace Hala? Why not Acerola (who is also from Ula'Ula, and could have been used for Mina' Trial?) or Kahili (who has almost no importance at all?) Even worse is that Hala had his story tied with Hau, and Hau beating him before challenging the E4 doesn't really add anything to either of their characters.
  • Kahili's team sucked. Sturdy Skarmory with Spikes added a tiny bit of difficulty, I don't see why they had to remove it. They also took away Crobat and have her an all-bird team. I get that she has good reasons to use all birds, thematically. But Flying type specialists are already pigeonholed with the same "I'm a bird master" role. but this is also reflective of a bigger problem: Flying Pokemon are in a rut, inspiration-wise.
 
K, I narrowed down all the reasons why I hate the new Elite Four

  • You're supposed to have a big battle with the Kahunas when you complete your Island Challenge, and the League was recently made so they were incorporatng everything together. Except with this new Elite Four, we only have one Kahuna. One.
  • Now we don't have representation from Melemele Island, and we have two residents from Ula'ula.
  • The gender ratio is horribly imbalanced. I prefer it being 2-male-2-female. And if you play as a female, you have this horribly imbalanced League.
  • I'm glad Molayne is doing more, but why replace Hala? Why not Acerola (who is also from Ula'Ula, and could have been used for Mina' Trial?) or Kahili (who has almost no importance at all?) Even worse is that Hala had his story tied with Hau, and Hau beating him before challenging the E4 doesn't really add anything to either of their characters.
  • Kahili's team sucked. Sturdy Skarmory with Spikes added a tiny bit of difficulty, I don't see why they had to remove it. They also took away Crobat and have her an all-bird team. I get that she has good reasons to use all birds, thematically. But Flying type specialists are already pigeonholed with the same "I'm a bird master" role. but this is also reflective of a bigger problem: Flying Pokemon are in a rut, inspiration-wise.
i mean, the whole reason we have a league to begin with is because GF clearly couldn't come up with an interesting way to tie off the island challenge. even the given OG finale is just the elite four but only kahunas, which considering that we battle Hapu like five minutes before E4, makes sense that they would try to have us not do that.

i didn't mind that the E4 was 3-1 though. the series skews so heavily male that it's kinda nice to see it lean heavily female for a small portion.
 
Well, only an hour or so in and I've found a gripe already: I do not like the remixed battle music, especially against general NPC trainers.

. . . I had the same complaint with BW2.
 
i mean, the whole reason we have a league to begin with is because GF clearly couldn't come up with an interesting way to tie off the island challenge. even the given OG finale is just the elite four but only kahunas, which considering that we battle Hapu like five minutes before E4, makes sense that they would try to have us not do that.
The Alolan version of the Elite Four should have been the Tapus, aided by the respective Kahunas' Pokemon. The very final challenge should have been a tournament against three other island challengers.
 
No new Alolan forms. *sigh*.

While it does get kinda fun at times, the Rainbow Rocket postgame event felt oddly boring. Also, why didn't Red and Blue appear there? That could've gotten kinda interesting had the two showed up in that subplot.

Necrozma in general felt like a rather arbitrary Knight of Cerebus even regarding the new lore. It probably doesn't help that the Ultra Recon Squad is a really really boring antagonist team that otherwise don't have much else to stand out aside from an equally boring "Megalopolis" and said lore regarding Necrozma. The only real memorable member of that group was Zossie imo. Not to mention they have really empty teams. Since they already have briefly caught Furfrou for a short experiment, why couldn't they also bother with gathering Pokemon from the Ultra Space Wilds as well for an advantage? I'd rather have a fight with a genuine team than dealing with just one Poipole.

The Nihilego encounter and the whole cryogenic prisons thing now come off as Big Lipped Alligator Moments now that Lusamine's obsession with the Nihilego has pretty much disappeared. I get that a lot of people feel that Lusamine came off as way too unhinged to be sympathetic in the original story, but in that case, why bother leaving those scenes here?

The Rotom-Dex is really annoying here compared to how it was back in the originals. The only reason I ever keep interacting with it is that the Roto Powers can occasionally be useful.
 
Last edited:
i mean, the whole reason we have a league to begin with is because GF clearly couldn't come up with an interesting way to tie off the island challenge. even the given OG finale is just the elite four but only kahunas, which considering that we battle Hapu like five minutes before E4, makes sense that they would try to have us not do that.
We wouldn't have battled Hapu because Kukui wouldn't have known about her, so excluding her is no issue. Hala and Olivia were only battled at the beginning of the game. And replacing Hala (of all people) still makes little sense.

i didn't mind that the E4 was 3-1 though. the series skews so heavily male that it's kinda nice to see it lean heavily female for a small portion.
I feel like going in the opposite direction wasn't good, even if the past had heavily-male Leagues. It's no big deal, but it ruins the #aesthetic.

EDIT: Another thing I hate, I'll mention here: most title defense Champions still only use five Pokemon, and they're only (roughly) 2 levels above the Elite Four. To make it worse, many of them have themed teams that focus on a single type, so they're easy to beat.
 
I have 2 massive gripes that have already been covered extensively here, but... I need to vent, so here it is.

The first simply relates to the usual "more than the game's necessary quota of Gen 1 throwbacks" issue.
  • Team Rainbow Rocket's Grunts had such a shallow amount of Pokemon. They all used the same few Pokemon over and over, which made is seriously boring to fight them. Made worse is that they only used Kanto Pokemon, for extra Gen I pandering. I get that they're a Kanto team and it's symbolic/nostalgic or whatever, but it's just another harsh reminder that Game Freak will always prioritize Gen I over everything else (outside of the current generation.) Other teams had no problem using Pokemon outside of their Generation.
  • It felt like Giovanni didn't really do anything besides take things over. Kind of a letdown. Ghetsis (bless his black heart) felt more intimidating, since he had plans to overthrow Giovanni and made that power play with Lillie.
I thought these exact same things with that post-game. YAWN at Gen 1 pandering in general. I was pleased to have the interactions with the other bosses. And Ghetsis was SOOO much more interesting than Giovanni (as expected). It upset me that Giovanni didn't get any kind of, you know, "unwanted sendoff back to his original place in space" like the others did. Dude. You're utterly boring to me. And ironically you employed all the bosses who weren't.

Since when was Kanto the supposed best region for Gym Battles?
Yup. I said aloud "Um, there are at least FIVE other regions that have the exact same thing. Could we... mention that at all? Or is Alola just a sister region to Kanto? At this point I think it is."

And then there's the Rotom-Dex.
O. M. GGGGG. Shut. The ****. Up. I really, really wish... that I could just ignore it, but I can't. The way that I see it out of the corner of my eye still... mouth flapping with 2 frames of animation... I should not have indulged him by using the "Roto-Loto"... but apparently he's quite bad even without using that, if I understand correctly? At any rate - it makes me much less likely to play the game more now that the main story things are done. Because at least in SM... after the main story... he would only say ONE thing when you started up the game, and that was it. So... hmm. Yep. It's quite bad that it annoys me QUITE so much, but... yeah, they've REALLY gotta give people the option to turn that off. They had changeable bottom screen content in Gen 6, SO WHY??!
(When he showed his face before Cyrus, I was like, "Ah, Cyrus, can you smash this thing so that it never speaks on my behalf ever again please and thank you.")

Oh and Kukui, you're officially my least-fave prof. as of this game because you are just too involved in everything and it annoyed me more somehow in this game. Also take back this possessed device please.

I feel bad that I posted here before the positive thread, but... yeah! If it weren't for the Rotom-Dex... Gen 7 wouldn't have even... 30% of the black mark it has for me.
 
Last edited:
Please note: The thread is from 6 years ago.
Please take the age of this thread into consideration in writing your reply. Depending on what exactly you wanted to say, you may want to consider if it would be better to post a new thread instead.
Back
Top Bottom